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The Psalms and Homer: Late Antique Classicizing Poetry and Christian Exegesis

Andrew Faulkner (Waterloo)

Friday, May 8, 2015 - 3:30pm
290 Paccar Hall

A poetic paraphrase of the "Septuagint Psalms," written in hexameter verse, has survived from Late Antiquity. Together with Nonnus of Panopolis’s hexameter paraphrase of Saint John’s Gospel, this rendering of the Psalms into verse is one of the principal examples of Greek biblical epic of the period, and yet it is very poorly known. This paper introduces the text, exploring how the poem engages with classical literature and learning, while at the same time making use of the tradition of Christian biblical exegesis to inform the paraphrase.

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